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Sedona’s soaring spirits

Vision quest can uplift, enlighten

By Alison Woo

Travel can mean more than taking your physical body to another place. At its highest intention, it can uplift your spirit, mind and body. Since the beginning of time, sages have traveled to the globe’s holiest spots seeking illumination. But how would one begin to begin such a quest today?

In the midst of our lives, filled with work, family and commitment there are places where one can go to get away from it all, slow down and get back in touch with your spirit. Tibet, Machu Picchu and Sedona, Arizona are just some of the places those who seek the truth visit. Why does anyone seek enlightenment? For some, the path to higher knowledge is in itself the reason. For me, I spent many years searching to find out the mysteries of the world around me. It is only been in the last few years I’ve embarked upon a quest to find out more about me. The questions that lingered were: What is my plan here? Who am I? And how can I really find deep, long-lasting fulfillment both my work and my personal life?

Every journey usually begins with a guide. This search was similar. Meeting one of the nation’s most well-known intuitives, Johanna Carroll, was truly providential. She opened the door to a much larger realization about the world around me. I supplemented my learning with books and seminars and each new piece of knowledge added another piece to the puzzle of this magical thing called my life.

This peeling back of the onion felt similar to being in school. At the beginning of the term or the lesson, you get the textbooks and you find out that there is a lot you don’t know. But to gather more information along the way, there are many tests to see if you’ve actually learned or remembered what you’ve just found out. It’s also a chance to put into practice and experience what you’ve learned. That finally there is the final exam or big life moments when you put it all in action and have to show the universe that you really got it this time. That’s when you get your summer vacation and you dream about what is what next semester is going to be like.

I received Johanna’s brochure about a vision quest and thought it would be the perfect thing to undertake during an upcoming trip. My knowledge of what to expect was faint. I remembered mentions of vision quests by Native American but other than that I had no idea what to expect. The brochure said it was a one- or two-day excursion that helped you discover what was at the heart of your life and offered clarity and direction.

I was more than ready for that. I set out to Sedona and opted for the one-day vision quest to follow the seminar that I would be taking. A beautiful sunrise on the morning of my quest inspired me enough to know it would be a miraculous day. We started out with a meditation and a clearing of the chakras (body’s energy centers). This also included a look at how one’s soul and life color influences our lives. Even lunch took on special importance as Johanna taught about the importance of choosing foods that can nurture your body and soul.

After lunch, the real work began. We went to a sacred spot in Sedona called the seven pools. Its seven pools represent each of the body’s chakras. You start out identifying your intentions. After clearing and cleansing each chakra, I was given a mantra to help me connect back to the energy of each charka. It was a deep and healing process. The universe has a terrific sense of humor. Just as we were working with each pool something would happen and where we could see we could see deftly tempered all over it: a dog came and ignited one of the pools just as I sat down beside him, a tour guide his voice strangely reminiscent of some of my past showed up just those clearing a path issues dealing with a person, and at the end a single raven (symbolic of a Native American power animal) flew overhead as I was at the pool representing individual power.

Following the vision quest, I had a deeper clarity of myself. I now live each day of my life with a deeper understanding of my mission in life. I used to think the world really needed a lot of fixing. Now I recognize the perfection of God’s hand and know that if we want to effect a real and lasting change, the only thing we can do is change the way we think on the inside. The outside will naturally follow.

For more information on vision quests, visit www.johannacarroll.com.
 

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